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So as most of you have no doubt heard on the news, the northeast US has been pounded by back to back snowstorms dumping a combined total of well over three feet of snow.
Anyway, got to work a little early this morning and was just getting settled in when I got an urgent message from my fiancé: her car was stuck at the bottom of the driveway, partially sticking out onto the road (which is a very busy main road in town) and she couldn't move an inch or even get out of the vehicle because she was too close to a snow bank.
I asked if she needed help, and when she said yes, I grabbed my coat, quickly explained the problem to my coworker, and took off. Very fortunately I was working at a site less then 10 minutes from home. I got there and shoveled out her front tires, put a small pile of ice melt under each, and she was able to get out. Total time away from work was only 40 minutes.
For the record, I dont blame her for this, I blame the landlord. For the most part he is very responsive to our needs but he is a DIY landlord, so he does the plowing himself and he always does a shitty job. Usually we can't even get up the driveway after he plows unless we go out and reshovel it ourselves or wait a couple days (parking in the free municipal garage downtown) until the sun and salt melts the snow on the pavement. Getting OUT of the driveway has never caused us to get stuck. If anything, it'd cause to to slide dangerously down the hill and almost cause us to skid right out into traffic! Not get stuck!
Anyway, all was good in the end. Luckily for me, the site manager here is the manager who is responsible for my timesheet and is also a friend of mine (she used to be one of my fellow floaters and is the ONLY person from my current job I invited to my wedding), so we worked out an arrangement whereby I'd punch out for my full lunch hour but only take a 30 minute break to make up for the time I'd been away (yeah I know, that's technically not kosher, but I hadn't taken the time to punch out before leaving and this was the simplest way to square matters).
So then, right after lunch, I got an email from my dad. During the first of the two storms, the left front fender on my car somehow got dented and the drivers door was hitting it, preventing it from being opened more than a foot. Since in a happy coincidence the site I'm at is right around the corner from where my dad works, I asked him to bring down his flat pry bar and I'd swing by his office after work to get it.
Well, he decided to try and be extra helpful and went over to my apartment house on his lunch break.......and left the pry bar on the threshold of the back door!
Um, hello! That was not exactly the smartest thing to do. If an unscrupulous person happens to case out the house, they'd find a forcible entry tool right there for them to break in with! Dad, I love you, but you can be a real moron sometimes! Sure, it's nt likely that anything would happen in only a few hours, but it's just not smart to do that.
Upon venting aloud at this stupidity, my boss came over and quietly told me, since I was only ten minutes from home, to go collect the pry bar just in case. She didn't want to see my place broken into anymore than I did. So I did. Took the opportunity to fix my door while I was at it. Took all of ten seconds to pop the dent out.
Ive been working at various jobs for 16 years, and in all that time I could count the number of times I've had to leave early for emergency reasons on one hand. Today I had to do it twice. Unbelievable.
And yes, I emailed my dad back to (politely!) point out the error of his ways. He got it, and further opined that he's lucky no one saw him approaching my back door with a pry bar and called the cops!
Anyway, got to work a little early this morning and was just getting settled in when I got an urgent message from my fiancé: her car was stuck at the bottom of the driveway, partially sticking out onto the road (which is a very busy main road in town) and she couldn't move an inch or even get out of the vehicle because she was too close to a snow bank.
I asked if she needed help, and when she said yes, I grabbed my coat, quickly explained the problem to my coworker, and took off. Very fortunately I was working at a site less then 10 minutes from home. I got there and shoveled out her front tires, put a small pile of ice melt under each, and she was able to get out. Total time away from work was only 40 minutes.
For the record, I dont blame her for this, I blame the landlord. For the most part he is very responsive to our needs but he is a DIY landlord, so he does the plowing himself and he always does a shitty job. Usually we can't even get up the driveway after he plows unless we go out and reshovel it ourselves or wait a couple days (parking in the free municipal garage downtown) until the sun and salt melts the snow on the pavement. Getting OUT of the driveway has never caused us to get stuck. If anything, it'd cause to to slide dangerously down the hill and almost cause us to skid right out into traffic! Not get stuck!
Anyway, all was good in the end. Luckily for me, the site manager here is the manager who is responsible for my timesheet and is also a friend of mine (she used to be one of my fellow floaters and is the ONLY person from my current job I invited to my wedding), so we worked out an arrangement whereby I'd punch out for my full lunch hour but only take a 30 minute break to make up for the time I'd been away (yeah I know, that's technically not kosher, but I hadn't taken the time to punch out before leaving and this was the simplest way to square matters).
So then, right after lunch, I got an email from my dad. During the first of the two storms, the left front fender on my car somehow got dented and the drivers door was hitting it, preventing it from being opened more than a foot. Since in a happy coincidence the site I'm at is right around the corner from where my dad works, I asked him to bring down his flat pry bar and I'd swing by his office after work to get it.
Well, he decided to try and be extra helpful and went over to my apartment house on his lunch break.......and left the pry bar on the threshold of the back door!
Um, hello! That was not exactly the smartest thing to do. If an unscrupulous person happens to case out the house, they'd find a forcible entry tool right there for them to break in with! Dad, I love you, but you can be a real moron sometimes! Sure, it's nt likely that anything would happen in only a few hours, but it's just not smart to do that.
Upon venting aloud at this stupidity, my boss came over and quietly told me, since I was only ten minutes from home, to go collect the pry bar just in case. She didn't want to see my place broken into anymore than I did. So I did. Took the opportunity to fix my door while I was at it. Took all of ten seconds to pop the dent out.
Ive been working at various jobs for 16 years, and in all that time I could count the number of times I've had to leave early for emergency reasons on one hand. Today I had to do it twice. Unbelievable.
And yes, I emailed my dad back to (politely!) point out the error of his ways. He got it, and further opined that he's lucky no one saw him approaching my back door with a pry bar and called the cops!